COMMERCE CITY — The man who scored the first goal in Colorado Rapids’ club history will be the second to have his jersey number retired.

Club legend and National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee Marcelo Balboa sat down with The Denver Gazette Wednesday for a wide-ranging interview ahead of Saturday’s festivities at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

The first 2,000 fans will receive a Balboa bobblehead, and No. 17’s jersey retirement ceremony will be followed by a post-game fireworks show. Pablo Mastroeni was the first player in club history to have his number, 25, retired by the Rapids during the 2021 season.

The Denver Gazette: What does it mean to you to be the second Rapids player to have his number retired?

Marcelo Balboa: It means that when I picked 17, I was smart not to pick a primary number. I didn’t pick 10 or 9. It’s easy to retire a 17 or 25 like Pablo. We picked non-primary numbers.

It’s been hitting me little by little. When I started playing, I never played to have my jersey retired or to make the Hall of Fame. We didn’t know there was a Hall of Fame back then. It hit me today a little bit more when my broadcast partner calls me and is trying to thank me for being a part of it, and he starts crying on the phone. It’s starting to get a little bit more emotional every day. My parents are coming in on Friday, so I’m sure it will be a lot more emotional come Friday when I see my mom, dad and brother. Everybody’s coming in, so it will hit me there.

I don’t know. To be honest with you, it’s still a team sport. To say they’re retiring my number, it means that everybody else that has played with me has done just as good of a job to help me to get where I’m at. There’s a lot of thanks to be spread around throughout the players, the people that have been on the field and helped. It’s been a little surreal thinking no one will wear 17 anymore. It’s been just kind of in my head. I’m just not really sure how to respond yet. You’ll see me respond on Saturday.

DG: How did you pick No. 17? 

MB: I got called up to the United States Men’s National Team. There was only a few numbers available. I think it was 13 and 19 or something like that. They gave me 13. I wanted 6, but somebody else already had 6. I was kind of waiting to see if 6 ever opened up, and my mom basically said “Hey, you can’t wear 13.” It’s bad luck. In South American culture, it’s not a good thing. So, my mom’s like, “When you get a chance, just picked another number.”

So I asked the trainer, “When is the possibility another number comes up?” The trainer said, “We’ll have to wait until next camp to see.” As soon as a number opened up, which was 17, I jumped on it like that and never let it go. That was probably 1988.

DG: When you think back to your time playing for the Rapids, what is at the forefront of your memory?

MB: Playing at old Mile High, that was kind of cool. We didn’t have a home like Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. At that time, it was old Mile High where the Broncos played. We all knew how big the Broncos were in this town. So, to be able to play in the same stadium, walking out the very first home game at Mile High not really sure what was going to happen, how many people were going to show up, how many people were going to accept what we were trying to do in MLS.

To our surprise when we walked out, there was 20,000-plus people there cheering us on and wanting to see what MLS was all about. I had great teammates back to Steve Trittschuh, Peter Vermes, Marcus Hahnemann, Jean Harbor. There’s just so many guys that have gone through this club — John Spencer, Paul Bravo — I could keep going. Just grateful to be able to be part of an organization that Phil Anschutz wanted to start here in Denver.

DG: Born in Chicago, grew up in California. Why stay in Colorado?

MB: When I played in the American Professional Soccer League, I played for the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks. Then, I signed with the Colorado Foxes. So, I played here for a year and just fell in love with the place. Certain people are city people. Some people are country people. Some like lakes. When I came here and lived here, it just felt like home.

I played here for two years. We left. I went to Mexico, to Greece. When we had an opportunity to choose — each player on the national team got a piece of paper that said put down your top three teams — so everybody had an opportunity to play somewhere they wanted to play. I think I was one of the few that put Colorado just because it felt like home. I knew this was a place we would probably raise a family, and we wanted them in an environment that was very peaceful, very relaxing, very nature filled. It just felt like home. It helped when I was in Mexico playing, I got a call with Sunil Gulati, who came to visit me from U.S. Soccer. He had Anschutz on the phone. I’m talking to Anschutz; he’s telling me his vision. If he was going to start a team in Denver, he wanted to start it with the dude who did the funny overhead kick in the 1994 World Cup.

DG: How have you seen the league evolve over 30 years?

MB: Listen, we weren’t sure after three years if we were going to have enough money. They made it very clear for the first guys to sign for this league, that we had money for three years. After that, we didn’t know what was going to happen. Obviously, we must’ve done something right, because we’re sitting here 30 years later with 30 franchises. When you look at it back then, it was trying to build a solid foundation for this league. We knew we weren’t going to be the ones making millions at the end, because we were already aged out, but we knew that we had to leave a strong foundation, so the next group of kids and the next generation of players would leave something building on that foundation.

The thing that turned the tide was when David Beckham signed here. Let’s just be honest: David Beckham signed and put this league on the map, which was huge. Then, you keep building. You have fabulous stadiums, great training facilities and then the next big step is Lionel Messi signs. Every step of the way, something has happened to make sure we keep developing our players and pushing this league in the right direction.

DG: As a commentator now, what is a realistic expectation for the Rapids the rest of the season?

MB: Players come and players go, but the expectations never change. The expectation is to make the playoffs. The expectation is to fight for a championship. Now, we’ll see what happens with everything, but I think Colorado’s expectations haven’t changed just because a player leaves or gets traded or comes in. That’s just part of our business, so the expectation would be they’re in a playoff spot right now. We expect this team to fight and get into the playoffs. Once you make the playoffs — we’ve seen it before in this league — anything can happen.

DG: For U.S. Soccer, what has the organization done well and where must it improve?

MB: Progress is the price of tickets for people to come watch the national team play. They’re too high. It’s ridiculous. I think that’s always something that’s got to be worked on. You’ve got to take care of the fans. The fans are the ones that make you or break you. They’re the ones that come and support you. They’re the ones that buy your merchandise, so you’ve got to drop those prices. I think people are finally starting to realize that. I think U.S. Soccer learned a hard lesson in Nations League this past year when no one showed up in Los Angeles because ticket prices were too high.

On the soccer side, we’ve got players that are playing on teams we never thought we would see an American play for back in the 90s. You’ve got guys at Chelsea, Juventus, you’ve got guys all over the map playing on teams, winning in Champions League. US Soccer has grown players with the MLS Academies. European clubs are buying players when they’re young. Listen, we’re moving in the right direction. We’re trending in the right direction, becoming a global market because people are coming here, watching MLS teams play and taking our players. They’re watching our national team play, and they’re taking players. Everything we would want, the pressure of having to win, Mauricio Pochettino has a lot of pressure to win now. That’s something that we didn’t have in the 90s. Nobody expected us to get out of the group in 94. We were part of the World Cup, because we were hosting. Now, this is what everybody has always wanted — pressure on the guys on the field to win every game, to give 100%. We’re not like Mexico or other countries yet, but we’re getting there.

DG: Where do you think the ceiling is for this next World Cup squad?

MB: There is no ceiling. If you put a ceiling on it, that means you can’t grow anymore. This team has tons of talent they can keep developing. I would say this group must reach a quarterfinal. It’s as simple as that. That’s not a ceiling. That’s a minimum for this group. Just getting out of the group is a failure. This group needs to get into a quarterfinal.

DG: Is there anything else you want people to know?

MB: I thank everybody, the fans and all of my teammates, because to this day, it’s weird to think of an individual honor in a team sport. It’s kind of weird, but I always say everybody will always remember the first goal I scored for the club, but I remember the guy who gave me the ball, who gave me the assist. I asked a bunch of people, and they don’t remember. That’s the interesting part. Look at all the hard work Jean Harbor did in order to lay that ball in front of the goal for me. There’s a lot of people to thank. I’m very thankful and grateful for everybody I’ve had an opportunity to play with. I definitely share this honor with them.

Editor’s note: Questions and answers were edited for length and clarity.